A method for storing a biometric template in a smart card to thereby limit information or access to a room or the like by use of the template has been disclosed in JP-T-2004-506253. Specifically, a biometric template, which is separated into a private part used only in a smart card for authentication and a public part fed to an external processor and used for authentication, is stored in the smart card so that the smart card restricted in terms of processing power can be used for biometric checking with security strengthened.